Banjo



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MONTAGUE F. CARTER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

BANJO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 555,636, dated March 3, 1896.

Application filed April 1 2 l 8 9 3.

To 05 whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MONTAGUE F. CARTER, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of the city of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Banjos, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention consists in the combination, with the rim and a closed back of a banjo, both in one piece, of a parchment head suitably held on said rim and having an opening therethrough which is reinforced at and about its edge, and again it consists of a tailpiece preferably made of sheet metal and having a notched flange at each end portion, one curving upward and the other downward, and in co-operation serving as means to hitch and secure the strings thereto, all as hereinafter appears.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a plan view of a banjo having the improvements of this invention in their most approved form. Fig. 2 is a central vertical and longitudinal section, enlarged, of the banjo-head, Fig. 1, and a portion of the banjo-neck. Fig. 3 is a plan view, enlarged, of the tailpiece detached from the banj o-body. Fig. 4 is a central longitudinal section of the tailpiece, Fig. 3. 4

In the drawings, A is the head, B is the neck, 0 is the body, D is the parchment-head of the body 0, E is the tailpiece, F F are the regular strings and G the melody or octave string, II II are the turn-pegs for the regular strings F, and J the turn-peg for the melody string G, all as well known in banjos, except as the same are varied by this invention.

The banjo-body O is composed of a rim C and a back 0 both of one piece, preferably of sheet metal, formed in any suitable manneras, for instance, if of metal, by spinning-into a dish shape, and, further, if the body is of metal, also of a wooden rim 0 lining the metal rim 0 and secured closely and rigidly thereto by any suitable fastening means, such as headed screws a, screwed into said rims from the inner side of the wooden Serial No. 470,067. (No model.)

rim, and which screws may be the same, and preferably are, as those ordinarily used to fasten the brackets K to the body for receiving the holding devices for the parchment head D, all as well known.

The parchment head has an opening D preferably centrally located. The edge of the opening D is reinforced or protected by a surrounding binding 1), made of sheet metal or other suitable material and lying and tightly compressed against the portions of the opposite surfaces of the head contiguous to the edge.

A body having a rim an d back of one piece, and more particularly so if said rim and back are of sheet metal and lined with an inner wooden rim in combination with the parchment head, having preferably a central opening, all substantially as particularly described, secure most resonant, strong, deep, ringing, and sweet tones from the strings as they are played, and these qualities of tone are retained in varying atmospheres.

The tailpiece E is made of sheet metal and has opposite end flanges f and g. The flange f, the farther from the bridge K of the parchment head, curves upwardly and the flange g, the nearer to said bridge, curves downwardly, and both flanges have a corresponding number of notches h and 70, respectively, and to receive the several strings of the banjo and each of which being knotted, as at Z, and thence passing under the tailpiece,through its proper notch of the other flange, g, is thereby engaged with a notch of the farther flange, f, held in position, as is obvious without further explanation. A tailpiece of the construction described enables the strings to be quickly and easily applied thereto.

The turn-peg J for the melody string G is located on the banjo-head A and the melody string G connected to it, all as well known.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A banjo-body having a rim and closed back in one piece, in combination with a parchment head having an opening through it reinforced at and about its edge and secured In testimony whereof I have hereunto set to said body, substantially as described, for

my hand in the presence of two subscribing 10 the purposes specified. witnesses.

2. In combination with a banjo of other- MONTAGUE F. CARTER. wise suitable construction, a. tailpiece, formed with curving and notched flanges at its 0ppo Vitnesscs: site end portions, substantially as described, ALBERT XV. BROWN,

for the purposes specified. MARION E. BROWN. 

